US11423122B2

Movatterモバイル変換

Info

Publication number: US11423122B2
Application number: US16/309,235
Authority: US
Inventors: Atsushi Matsudaira
Original assignee: Shimadzu Corp
Current assignee: Shimadzu Corp
Priority date: 2016-06-15
Filing date: 2016-06-15
Publication date: 2022-08-23
Also published as: CN109313675A; WO2017216901A1; CN109313675B; JPWO2017216901A1; JP6729692B2; US20190163881A1

Abstract

An installation operator of a newly purchased analyzing device (10) performs software activation of the analyzing device PC (1) from an installation operator terminal (3) using his or her own account. At that time, the installation operator is registered in the server (5) as the license holder of the software. After that, when the installation operator issues a transfer request with an e-mail address of a device user who is a license transfer destination from a terminal (3) to a server (5) attached, a predetermined web page is created in the server (5) and an e-mail containing a URL is sent to the device user who has already acquired their account. When the device user issues an instruction of acceptance upon browsing the web page at the user terminal (2), the license holder of the software is transferred from the installation operator to the device user in the server (5).

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/JP2016/067778 filed Jun. 15, 2016.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a system and a method for managing software licenses installed in a computer such as a personal computer, and more particularly to a software license management system and a management method suitable for managing software licenses installed in a computer for controlling various analyzing devices and processing data obtained by the analyzing device.

BACKGROUND ART

In recent years, a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as “PC”) in which a software dedicated for control of analyzing devices such as a gas chromatograph, a liquid chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, or the like and processing and management of various data obtained by these devices is installed has been widely used. As a method of preventing unauthorized use of software installed in a PC used in such a field, a license authentication method based on hardware such as a USB dongle has been conventionally in the mainstream. In recent years, however, an electronic license authentication method that links a license of a software to a specific device (analyzing device, PC, etc.) and restricts the use of the software to that specific device by linking the license to that specific device is in the mainstream. Such a license authentication method is normally referred to as “activation” (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).

Normally, in activation of software in PC or the like, a license management system is established in many cases in which software licenses held by a user are managed by a server of the manufacturer or sales company of the software. When performing activation online in such a system, the user first creates a user account on a predetermined web page that can be browsed through the Internet from the PC on which the software to be activated is installed, and uses the user account to access to the license management server to activate, that is, performs a license authentication. When the license authentication is completed, the software installed in the PC becomes usable.

Such a software installed in a PC that controls analyzing devices as described above and processes data acquired by the analyzing devices becomes usable only after receiving the license authentication. Therefore, the installation work of a newly purchased analyzing device usually involves installing hardware including the analyzing device and a PC attached thereto, as well as activating a software for the analyzing device. Therefore, conventionally, during the installation work of the analyzing device, an installation operator such as the manufacturer of the analyzing device or the like has to temporarily use an account of a license holder, that is, a user who purchased the device (more specifically, the person in charge of managing the device, etc.) to carry out the activation.

However, in such a conventional procedure, the license holder's account becomes known to the installation operator. Therefore, irrespective of the installation operator's intention, there was a security problem such as leakage of account information of the license holder.

CITATION LISTPatent Literature

Patent Literature 1: JP 2008-21021 A

Non Patent Literature

Non Patent Literature 1: “LabSolutions analysis data system ER/ES related regulatory compliance”, [online], Shimadzu Corporation, [Search on Jun. 8, 2016], Internet

SUMMARY OF INVENTIONTechnical Problem

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a highly secured software license management system and a management method that can complete an activation without using an account of a user who is the license holder, even when a person, such as an installation operator, unrelated to the user is involved in the activation.

Solution to Problem

According to an aspect of the present invention, a software license management system includes:

a computer network;

one or more computers connected to the computer network, each provided with a receiving unit for receiving an e-mail and a browser for blowing a web page; and

a license management server connected to the computer network, the system being configured to manage a license of a predetermined software installed on at least one of the one or more computers or another computer not connected to the computer network, and the license management server further includes:

a) a license information storage unit configured to register information capable of identifying the predetermined software and information capable of identifying a license holder in one-to-one correspondence;

b) a web page creation unit configured to create a license acceptance processing web page for the predetermined software in response to a license transfer request via the computer network from a license holder of the predetermined software on one of the one or more computers,

c) an access information notification unit configured to send information accessible to the web page created by the web page creation unit via an e-mail to a computer of a license transfer destination user, the computer being one of the one or more computers,

d) a license transfer processing unit configured to, upon performance of a license acceptance operation on the license acceptance processing web page browsed via the browser on the computer of the license transfer destination user who has received the e-mail, change the license holder of the predetermined software registered in a license information storage unit to the license transfer destination user.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a software license management method for managing a predetermined software license in a software license management system includes:

a computer network

one or more computers connected the computer network, each provided with a receiving unit for receiving an e-mail and a browser for blowing a web page; and

a license management server connected to the computer network, the method managing a predetermined software license installed on at least one of the one or more computers or another computer not connected to the computer network, and the license management server executes a series of processing including:

- a) creating a license acceptance processing web page for the predetermined software in response to a license transfer request via the computer network from a license holder of the predetermined software on one of the one or more computers,
- b) sending information accessible to the created web page via an e-mail to a computer of a license transfer destination user, the computer being one of the one or more computers,
- c) upon performance of a license acceptance operation on the license acceptance processing web page browsed via the browser on the computer of the license transfer destination user who has received the e-mail, changing the license holder associated with identification information of the predetermined software in a license information storage unit storing information capable of identifying the predetermined software and license holders in one-to-one correspondence for managing licenses to the license transfer destination user.

In the software license management system and in the software license management method according to the present invention, the license management server may be constituted by one computer, or the functions may be distributed in a plurality of computers. The computer network is typically the Internet, but it may be a normal closed computer network such as an intranet. The one or more computers connected to the computer network are typically personal computers, but they may be information terminal devices on which a mailer and a browser are mounted, such as so-called tablet type terminals and smartphones.

In the software license management system according to the present invention, the information capable of identifying the predetermined software, for example, a product serial number of the software, and the information capable of identifying a license holder, for example, account information, are registered in the license information storage unit in one-to-one correspondence. When a license holder of the predetermined software wishes to transfer the license to another person (user), the license holder submits a license transfer request from one of the one or more computers connected to the computer network to the license management server. The license transfer request may include the information of the license transfer destination user, more specifically, the e-mail address of the user.

Upon receiving the license transfer request, a web page creation unit creates a web page for license acceptance processing for the predetermined software. In addition, an access information notification unit sends the information accessible to the created web page, typically an address (URL) of a storage location of the web page, to a computer of the license transfer destination user by an e-mail. The user who has received the e-mail browses the web page for license acceptance processing based on access information described in the received e-mail, and performs a predetermined operation if the user desires the license acceptance on the web page. Upon receiving an operation corresponding to the acceptance, on the license management server side, the license transfer processing unit changes the license holder of the predetermined software registered in the license information storage unit to the license transfer destination user. If the license management server receives an operation to reject the license acceptance or when a term of validity of the sent e-mail expires, the license holder is not changed but maintained.

It is preferable in the software license management system according to the present invention that,

the license management server further includes an account management unit configured to create and manage a user account for using the server in response to a request from any one of the one or more computers, and

the software license management system is configured so that,

- when the license holder of the predetermined software submits the license transfer request, the license holder logs in using his or her own user account managed by the account management unit, and
- when the license transfer destination user browses the license acceptance processing web page, the license transfer destination user logs in using his or her own user account managed by the account management unit.

For example, as disclosed inNon Patent Literature 1, software for an analyzing device may have a system configuration such that, for example, a plurality of softwares corresponding to various kinds of analyzing devices and a plurality of softwares for controlling a plurality of units constituting one analyzing device are collectively stored in one package, but the user needs to apply license authentication for each of the plurality of softwares. That is, the user needs to receive licenses as many as the number of software that the user wants to use, or as many as the number of software corresponding to the units used for analysis. In such a case, it is sometimes desired to transfer all the licenses of all the softwares included in one software package at once, and it is desired in other cases to transfer only licenses of some of the softwares.

Therefore, in the software license management system and management method according to the present invention, the system may be configured that

the predetermined software is composed of a plurality of segment softwares which perform different functions, and

the license transfer request is capable of requesting license transfer by individually specifying the plurality of segment softwares constituting the predetermined software.

According to the configuration described above, a plurality of licenses of softwares (the above-described segment softwares) included in one software package can easily be transferred to the user all at once or partially by the license holder's choice. In particular, when transfer of a large number of licenses of softwares included in one software package is desired, if an operation for transferring the license has to be performed one by one, it requires much labor and time. On the other hand, with this configuration, by selecting a plurality of licenses to be transferred all at once and requesting the transfer, the owner is changed at a time for the selected plurality of licenses, so that labor and time for license transfer can be saved. Thus, the software license management system and management method according to the present invention is suitable for analysis systems having a system configuration including software corresponding to various analyzing devices and software having different functions are packaged in one package as described above and configured to acquire licenses for each function that the user desires to use.

In the software license management system and management method according to the present invention, a computer on which software to be subjected to license transfer is installed may be connected to a computer network, but the computer does not necessarily have to be connected to a computer network. In other words, even for software installed in a computer not connected to a computer network such as the Internet, that is, in an offline state, the license may be transferred by using the software license management system and management method according to the present invention.

In the analysis system including the above-described various analyzing devices described above, PCs for control and data processing are not connected to the Internet for security reasons in many cases. However, in such a case as well, according to the software license management system and management method according to the present invention, the software license installed in the computer in the system may be transferred to the device user adequately from the installation operator. In this point as well, the software license management system and management method according to the present invention may be suitable for license management of computers in analysis systems and the like.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the software license management system and the management method of the present invention, when installing an analyzing device for which control or data processing is performed by a PC for example, the installation operator can perform the activation of the software installed in the PC by using his or her own user account, and then after the activation is completed and the software becomes usable, can transfer the software license to the device user who is an original license holder, so that the device user may perform usage or management of the software by using the user account of his or her own. Accordingly, since the account of the device user with high confidentiality is not known to the installation operator, high security can be secured.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an example of a software license management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a characteristic license transfer process and a working procedure in the software license management system of the present example.

FIGS. 3A-3D are diagrams showing an example of a display screen on a terminal for explaining the license transfer process shown inFIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

An example of a software license management system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a software license management system according to this example. The software license management system of this example is connected to an analyzing device such as a liquid chromatograph, a gas chromatograph, or the like, and is a system for controlling licenses of dedicated control and processing software installed in a PC for controlling the analyzing device or processing data obtained by the device.

The software license management system according to the present example includes an analyzingdevice PC1 connected to an analyzingdevice10 for executing a predetermined analysis on a sample and collecting measurement data, and alicense management server5 which is actually a computer and usually under control of a manufacturer of the analyzing device10 (or a seller of dedicated software described later installed in the analyzing device PC1), a PC held by a device user of the analyzing device and thePC1 for the analyzing device which is held by the device user of the analyzingdevice10 and the analyzing device PC1 (or in an environment usable by the device user), a user terminal such as auser terminal2 such as a PC, a tablet type terminal, a smartphone or the like, a PC which is in an environment usable by a device user, and installation work such as a PC, and aninstallation operator terminal3 such as a tablet type terminal, a smartphone, etc. Theuser terminal2, theinstallation operator terminal3, and thelicense management server5 are connected to theInternet4 corresponding to the computer network in the present invention. On the other hand, the analyzingdevice PC1 is not connected to theinternet4 in order to avoid intrusion from the outside via theInternet4 to ensure high security.

The analyzingdevice PC1 includes an installed dedicated control and processing software for controlling the analyzingdevice10 and processing data obtained by thedevice10, and includes alicense authentication unit11 in addition to an analyzing device control andprocessing unit12 as functional blocks embodied by executing the software on the PC1. Each of theuser terminal2 and theinstallation operator terminal3 includes a standard browser and a mailer that are installed in a PC or the like respectively. Thelicense management server5 includes, as functional blocks embodied by executing a preinstalled program on a computer, an accountcreation processing unit50, a licenseregistration processing unit51, an acceptance requestreception processing unit52, an acceptance processing web page creation and storage unit53, ane-mail notification unit54, a license holder transfer processing unit55, a user account information storage unit56, and a license information storage unit57.

Account information such as a user name, a user ID, a password, and an e-mail address is stored in the user account information storage unit56 in order to identify a user who can use thelicense management server5. In the license information storage unit57, information for linking a serial number of the control and processing software installed in the analyzingdevice PC1 and the license holder's account information is stored.

In the system of the present embodiment, the control and processing software installed in the analyzingdevice PC1 is one package software, but is composed of a plurality of softwares having different functions such as for a gas chromatograph and for a liquid chromatograph, for example (however, some programs are used in common), and a license is set for each software. Therefore, the device user can selectively receive the license authentication only for one or a plurality of softwares scheduled to be used by the device user, rather than receiving license authentication for all the softwares included in the package software. For example, only a gas chromatograph is used as the analyzingdevice10, and a device user not using a liquid chromatograph or the like can acquire a license only for software for gas chromatograph in one package software. Of course, depending on the device user, it is also conceivable to acquire licenses of all softwares included in the package software, including a software that has not been determined whether or not to be actually used.

InFIG. 1, oneanalyzing device10 is connected to oneanalyzing device PC1, but a plurality of analyzing devices may be connected to oneanalyzing device PC1. In that case, the types of the plurality of analyzing devices need not to be the same, and may be different types of analyzing devices such as a liquid chromatograph, the gas chromatograph, a spectrophotometer, a mass spectrometer, for example.

Naturally, thelicense management server5 intensively manages a large number of licenses of control and processing software.

Installation of the newly purchased analyzingdevice10 and analyzingdevice PC1 is performed by the installation operator. The installation operator not only installs the hardware at the designated position of the designated location but also performs an activation for the control and processing software installed in the analyzingdevice PC1 together. Then, after confirming that the software is in a usable state, the analyzing device and the analyzingdevice PC1 are delivered to the device user. In the software license management system of this example, at that time, the device user is made a license holder of the control and processing software installed in the analyzingdevice PC1 according to characteristic processes and work procedures. The processing and the procedure of the work will be described in detail below.

As part of the installation work, the installation operator first performs activation of the control and processing software installed in the analyzing device PC1 (or installed in the analyzing device PC1) as follows.

For this purpose, the installation operator creates a user account in advance. More specifically, the installation operator activates the browser on theinstallation operator terminal3 and accesses a predetermined address (URL). Thelicense management server5 receives the access via theInternet4, and the accountcreation processing unit50 displays a login screen on which an account can be created on the display unit of theinstallation operator terminal3. The installation operator inputs the number of a license certificate previously provided together with the account information such as the user name, the password, the e-mail address, and the like, and requests account registration. Upon receiving this request, the accountcreation processing unit50 creates a user account of the installation operator and stores the account information in the user account information storage unit56.

One the user account is registered, log in to thelicense management server5 is achieved by entering the user ID and the password on the login screen thereafter. Since the creation of the user account can be made at any time as long as the number of the license certificate is known, the installation operator usually acquires his or her own user count in advance.

Next, the installation operator performs the activation of the control and processing software using his or her own user account.

More specifically, when the installation operator performs a predetermined operation on the analyzingdevice PC1, thelicense authentication unit11 displays a machine code registered in advance on the screen of the display unit. The machine code is a code assigned in advance to identify the PC to be connected to the analyzing device. Although the program that embodies thelicense authentication unit11 is part of the control and processing software, the program itself functions regardless of whether or not the software is activated.

The installation operator logs in to thelicense management server5 from theinstallation operator terminal3 using his or her own user account and performs a predetermined operation. Upon this operation, the licenseregistration processing unit51 of thelicense management server5 displays an activation input screen on the display unit of theinstallation operator terminal3. The installation operator inputs a product serial number, security code, etc., of the control and processing software in addition to the above machine code on the activation input screen. Upon reception, the licenseregistration processing unit51 confirms whether or not the correspondence between the machine code and the product serial number is correct, and then issues an activation code, and sends the installation operator by displaying it on the screen of the display unit of theinstallation operator terminal3. Actual activation is enabled only after acquisition of the activation code. In other words, the installation operator inputs the activation code on the screen displayed on the analyzingdevice PC1 by thelicense authentication unit11, and instructs an execution of the activation. Upon reception of instruction, thelicense authentication unit11 confirms the activation code, and if it is an authorized activation code, activates the control and processing software.

On the other hand, the licenseregistration processing unit51 in thelicense management server5 issues an activation code, and registers information linking the product serial number of the control and processing software installed in the analyzingdevice PC1 with the user account of the installation operator in the license information storage unit57. The control and processing software becomes usable upon completion of the activation by the installation operator. However, in terms of license management, the license holder of the control and processing software at this time point is the installation operator.

Upon completion of all the installation work including the above-mentioned activation, the installation operator performs the license transfer work described below for transferring the license for the control and processing software, which he or she holds at that time, to the device user.FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the procedure of this process and work.FIGS. 3A-3D show an example of a display screen in the process of this operation.

The installation operator logs in to thelicense management server5 from theinstallation operator terminal3 by using his or her own user account and performs a predetermined operation (Step S1). Upon reception of this operation, the acceptance requestreception processing unit52 of thelicense management server5 acquires the software license corresponding to the logged-in user account, that is, in this case, the above-mentioned control and processing software license information held by the installation operator at that time from the license information storage unit57, creates a transferlicense selection screen100 as shown inFIG. 3A based on the acquired license information, and displays the same on the display unit of the installation operator terminal3 (Step S2).

As shown inFIG. 3A, on the transferlicense selection screen100, asoftware list101 for which a person who logs in possesses a license at that time is included. In this example, in thelist101 in the transferlicense selection screen100, three software programs having different functions included in one package software are listed, and a license can be set for each of them. The plurality of licenses can be transferred individually, and acheckbox102 is provided for selecting whether or not to transfer the license for each software. In the case where the installation operator transfers the license to the original device user, the transfer is achieved by selecting a software by putting a check mark in some or all software purchased by the device user included in the control and processing software and clicks “transfer”button103 to request transfer (Step S3).

In response to this operation, the acceptance requestreception processing unit52 recognizes the software that the license is to be transferred and, as shown inFIG. 3B, receives an e-mailaddress entry column111 of a user as a transfer destination (the device user in this case), and a transferlicense confirmation screen110 including asoftware list113 that the license is to be transferred is displayed on the display unit of the installation operator terminal3 (Step S4). The installation operator fills in the e-mail address of the device user in the e-mailaddress entry column111 on the transfer license confirmation screen110 (Step S5). Then, the acceptance requestreception processing unit52 collates the filled e-mail address with the user account information storage unit56 and if the user account is registered, displays the corresponding user name and the like in the userinformation display field112 on the transfer license confirmation screen110 (Step S6). Since the license cannot be transferred unless the user account of the transfer destination device user is registered in the user account information storage unit56, the device user needs to create his own user account in advance. The procedure is the same as the creation of the user account of the installation operator.

The installation operator confirms the user information and the software to be transferred on the displayed transferlicense confirmation screen110, and if no problem is found, issues an acceptance request instruction by clicking the “acceptance request” button114 (Step S7). Up to this point is the work that the installation operator should perform with regard to license transfer, and after that the device user himself or herself needs to do the work.

In thelicense management server5 receiving the acceptance request instruction, the acceptance processing web page creation and storage unit53 creates a web page for acceptance processing in a predetermined format and uploads the web page to an internal or another web server (Step S8). Further, thee-mail notification unit54 creates an e-mail in a predetermined format shown inFIG. 3C containing the address (URL) of a storage location of the uploaded web page for acceptance processing. Then, the e-mail is transmitted to the e-mail address of the device user entered in Step S5 (Step S9).

Since the e-mail is sent to theuser terminal2 of the device user, the device user receives the e-mail at theuser terminal2. Then, the device user clicks the URL of the web page described in the e-mail and browses an acceptance processing web page by the browser. As shown inFIG. 3D, the acceptanceprocessing web page130 includes asoftware list131 to be transferred, and the device user confirms this and, if no problem is found, clicks the “accept” button132 (Step S10). If any problem, such as the shortage of software to be transferred, is found, the operation of clicking the “Reject acceptance”button133 is performed to retry the operation.

In thelicense management server5 that has received the license acceptance operation, the license holder transfer processing unit55 transfers the user account of the license holder linked to the software to the user account of the device user as the license transfer destination, and rewrites the information stored in the license information storage unit57 (Step S11). As a result, the license holder of the control and processing software installed and activated in the analyzingdevice PC1 is changed from the installation operator to the device user who is the original holder.

As described above, in the system of the present example, after the installation operator performs the activation by using his/her user account to make the software usable, the activated software license may be transferred to the device user who is the original license holder. At this time, the device user who is the license holder after the transition can freely set the user account, and thus even if the information of the user account of the installation operator leaks out, the third party cannot perform any work on the above-described software with the leaked user account. In this way, high security can be secured.

The above description relates to the transfer of the license from the installation operator to the device user at the time of installation of the device. Likewise, transfer of the license from one device user to another user is also possible.

In the example given above, the present invention is applied to the activation of control and processing software of the analyzing device. However, the present invention may also be applied to the activation of software installed in any computer such as a general PC, a workstation, and a server. For example, even in the case of a general PC, there are cases where all the various settings of the software of the newly purchased PC are requested to the person in charge of the dealer. Even in such a case, the present invention is extremely useful.

In addition, the above-described embodiments are merely examples of the present invention, and it is obvious that any corrections, additions, and modifications appropriately made within the scope of the gist of the present invention are included in the scope of claims of the present invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, the analyzingdevice PC1 is not connected to theinternet4, but it may be connected to theinternet4. However, as described above, in the system including the analyzing device as described above, the analyzingdevice PC1 is not connected to theinternet4 in many cases from the security point of view. Therefore, in such a configuration, capability of transferring licenses from the installation operator to the device user smoothly under high security is one of the great advantages of the system according to the present invention.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

1 . . . Analyzing Device PC
10 . . . Analyzing Device
11 . . . License Authentication Unit
12 . . . Analyzing Device Control and Processing Unit
2 . . . User Terminal
3 . . . Terminal of Installation Operator
4 . . . Internet
5 . . . License Management Server
50 . . . Account Creation Processing Unit
51 . . . License Registration Processing Unit
52 . . . Acceptance Request Reception Processing Unit
53 . . . Acceptance Processing Web Page Creation and Storage Unit
54 . . . E-Mail Notification Unit
55 . . . License Holder Transfer Processing Unit
56 . . . User Account Information Storage Unit
57 . . . License Information Storage Unit
100 . . . Transfer License Selection Screen
101,113,131 . . . Software List
102 . . . Checkbox
103 . . . “Transfer” Button
110 . . . Transfer License Confirmation Screen
111 . . . E-Mail Address Entry Field
112 . . . User Information Display Field
114 . . . “Acceptance Request” Button
130 . . . Acceptance Processing Web Page
132 . . . “Accept” Button
133 . . . “Refuse To Accept” Button